Lewis Hamilton maintained the slight speed edge that McLaren haveshown against rivals Ferrari in Barcelona, when he topped the times on
the first day of this week’s final full pre-season test.
The morning had started in damp conditions but a dry line appeared
in the early afternoon to allow teams some chance to get on with
evaluating their final developments ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s best lap was just a few hundredths of a second faster
than Kimi Raikkonen, with Michael Schumacher returning to action in the
2008 car to set the third best time.
Kazuki Nakajima maintained the continued impressive pace of the
Williams to end up fourth quickest, ahead of McLaren’s Heikki
Kovalainen and Williams teammate Nico Rosberg.
Nick Heidfeld recovered from a mechanical problem in the morning,
that left him stranded between Turns 4 and 5, to set the eighth best
time.
The other red flags were brought out by Sebastian Vettel, who went
off at Turn 3 at 10.05am, and Nelson Piquet, who touched the pit wall
entry just before 1pm.
Adrian Sutil delivered some encouraging news for Force India as he
set the 11th best time as they ran their 2008 car for the first time.
Today’s times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.276 78
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:22.319 82
3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:22.428 83
4. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.724 54
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.852 71
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.974 108
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:23.021 79
8. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:23.075 75
9. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:23.091 62
10. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:23.115 71
11. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:23.188 95
12. Klien BMW-Sauber (B) 1:23.239 43
13. Liuzzi Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:23.270 70
14. Piquet Renault (B) 1:23.442 42
15. Glock Toyota (B) 1:23.609 86
16. Kobayashi Toyota (B) 1:23.880 29
17. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:24.460 115
18. Wurz Honda (B) 1:24.667 109
19. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:24.826 25
Championship will be hard fought – Ferrari
From Autosport.com
Ferrari do not believe that they are the clear favourites for the
Formula One world championship this year, despite their impressive
pre-season testing performances.
With Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa having set some strong times in
recent testing, many believe that the reigning champions are already
the team to beat.
But technical director Aldo Costa has said he remains cautious about
their chances and thinks main rivals McLaren and Renault are still a
big concern for them.
"I carry on believing that the championship will be hard fought," said Costa, during testing at Barcelona in Spain.
"For us there’s a very strong (Lewis) Hamilton in the McLaren, and
an improving (Fernando) Alonso in the Renault, so we expect difficult
rivals as usual.
"Therefore we keep our feet on the ground. We will try to get to the
first race in the best possible way, especially by taking care of every
detail in order to maximise reliability."
Ferrari’s belief that they are still not in perfect shape was sealed
during their private test at Barcelona on Friday, when test driver Luca
Badoer failed to complete a race distance simulation because of a
mechanical problem.
Last year, it was reliability issues that cost the team several
strong results and allowed rivals McLaren to fight them all the way to
the final round of the season.
Speaking about their pre-season preparations, Costa said: "We’ve
clearly tried to anticipate many decisions, and done many tests in
order to prepare ourselves best. But, as you could see, we haven’t
reached perfection yet, so we aren’t 100% satisfied."
When asked what he was most afraid of for the new season, Costa
said: "Well, the little problem of reliability. We need to take care of
all aspects. We are sure we will get to the first race in the best
possible condition, not only from a performance point of view, but also
in terms of the reliability."
FUCK ISRAEL 